In the mid-1980s, the German company SMS Schloemann-Siemag developed a process to produce sheet steel in a single production run.
The US company, Nucor adopted this process and opened a "mini-mill" which uses scrap metal liquefied in an electric arc furnace.
This process is called thin slab casting and is quicker and less capital intensive than the traditional ore to smelter process, and reduces the cost of producing a ton of steel.
Another new technology is direct-reduced iron which recovers metallic iron without the normal coke-making step.
Still another new technology is strip casting which US Steel may invest in and is expected to produce a superior quality of steel.
In addition to Nucor, several other companies are moving to the new technology.
Among them are: AHV in Spain, Trico Steel to be formed in the US as a joint US, UK, Japan venture; a joint venture between an Australian company and North Star Steel will build a mini-mill in the US; the US Steel company ARMCO plans a plant in Ohio; the South African steel manufacturer Iscor plans to develop a mini-mill in that country; and ARBED, the Luxembourg-based steel maker plans to replace traditional coal-fired blast furnaces with electric furnaces.
Technical problems that have arisen in the new technology include the need for a tighter process control parameters and the larger issue of a thin gummy scale that forms on some of the production process.
